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Politico reports:
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) stopped just sort of calling President Barack Obama a hypocrite on Iraq and says Obama should be giving credit to former President George W. Bush for the war’s successes.
Obama — a vocal critic in the Senate and on the campaign trail of the Iraq troop surge — plans to highlight its success in his second speech from the Oval Office. But McConnell, in a speech in Lexington, Ky., planned to say that credit should be given to “another president,” George W. Bush, who had the “determination and will to carry out the plan that made [this] announcement possible.”
“It sure makes things easier when you reject your own campaign rhetoric about how the surge — the Petraeus plan — shouldn’t happen and wouldn’t work,” McConnell said at the Commerce Lexington Public Policy Luncheon. “[And] it makes it easier to talk about fulfilling a campaign promise to wind down our operations in Iraq when the previous administration signs the security agreement with Iraq to end our overall presence there.”
“You might recall that the surge wasn’t very popular when it was announced. You might also recall that one of its biggest critics was the current president.”
With his remarks Tuesday, McConnell joined other leading Republicans, including 2008 GOP presidential nominee John McCain and House Minority Leader John Boehner, in praising Bush while calling into question Obama’s foreign policy vision.
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busboy33 // Aug 31, 2010 at 6:38 pm
I’m sorry . . . was Iraq a success now?
I was happy with “So long and thanks for all the sand”.
easton // Aug 31, 2010 at 7:08 pm
Look, I would be absolutely happy to give some credit for the later success if people like McConnell will own up to the grossly and criminally negligent way the war was handled for the first 3 years.
I supported the Surge but I had my doubts, no in the strategy but in the command structure. Rumsfeld had me completely demoralized (look, we filled in a pothole, never mind that burning school and the screaming children inside, we filled this pothole)
When Republicans apologize for supporting Rumsfeld, then we can talk.
Oldskool // Aug 31, 2010 at 7:16 pm
Sure, forget Bush and his buddies lied us into Iraq but be sure to give him credit if anything good ever comes of it. No big deal Mitch, you guys have gotten us used to living in 1984 year after year.
armstp // Aug 31, 2010 at 7:40 pm
We can give plenty of credit to Bush for this criminal war and the biggest foreign policy blunder ever.
We can give Bush and McConnell and McCain credit for the 1.0 million Iraqi dead, +4000 U.S. dead and the $1 trillion cost. These three characters have plenty of blood on their hands.
They should be thrown in jail….
TerryF98 // Aug 31, 2010 at 8:14 pm
Just imagine old tortoise head McConnell as Senate Majority leader then have a stiff drink and vote Democrat.
nwahs // Aug 31, 2010 at 8:14 pm
I guessing more convincing conservatism would attract a different crowd. But I guess its hard to wax conservative when you aren’t. Perhaps reprint the axis of evil speech? This is pretty much HP light.
Posting From Fake America // Aug 31, 2010 at 10:10 pm
nwahs,
Many conservatives, especially after Vietnam, voiced their opposition to “nation-building” military adventures and peacekeeping missions. A lot of conservatives (from paleocons to libertarian-cons) were uneasy with Bush’s rationale for the Iraq war, and they turned on him once it was clear that it was a mismanaged bloody boondoggle with tremendous costs (see Applebaum’s post).
busboy33 // Aug 31, 2010 at 10:11 pm
Good point easton.
It seems that “Operation Iraqi Freedom” is now “Operation Surge”.
Sure. Fine. The surge worked bettern than many people (including me) thought it would. It didn’t work . . . its just worked better than we expected.
And all the rest of the shameful clusterf*ck that was Iraq? I guess that’s all Clinton’s fault.
Watusie // Aug 31, 2010 at 10:39 pm
What Bush deserves for Iraq is jailtime. Since that isn’t going to happen, I’ll have to settle for the opprobrium of history. That, at least, is a dead cert.
rbottoms // Aug 31, 2010 at 11:11 pm
Credit where credit is due.
Thanks G.W. for all the success in Iraq. If you define success as fifty-thousand service members blinded, burned, paralyzed, limbless, and disfigured, 5,000 of them dead dead, and $1,000,000,000,000 chucked into a furnace of sand.
You want it. You got it. Dimwit.
lcandell // Sep 1, 2010 at 6:11 am
Senator Foghorn Claghorn – always a source of endlss laughs.